San Diego County broke another record on Friday, with the total new daily cases of coronavirus reaching 4,550. This is 72 more than the previous record set on New Year’s Eve.
The twin peaks, arriving six and eight days after an important holiday, seem to confirm the concerns expressed by epidemiologists, public health experts and health leaders throughout December: Getting too close to each other during the holidays will come at a terrible cost in the year New.
“We anticipated that cases would increase after the holidays, and they did,” said Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county’s director of public health, in a statement. “We need to do a better job following public health guidelines, especially now that the most contagious variant of COVID-19 is in our communities.
“San diegans should not meet with people outside the home and should stay at home as long as possible.”
Formally called B.1.1.7., The new variant mentioned by Wooten continues to show its presence in the region, the cause of 28 local cases of coronavirus and the suspected cause of 13 more has now been confirmed. Genetic sequencing is necessary to confirm the variant, often called the “UK strain”, which adds a time lag before the real viral version is known.
The main concern remains what so many new cases – the single day has passed the 4,000 mark three times since December 30 – will do with local hospitalizations.
Hospitals have been struggling in recent weeks to convert previously unused spaces to intensive care to serve patients in need of intensive care, adopting team nursing approaches that often deviate from previous nurse-patient proportions designed to ensure care. quality.
While this work has prevented the region from running out of ICU beds so far, the county’s latest report shows that there were only 44 employees and was immediately available on Thursday, the most recent day for which data were available.